In recent years, the increasing complexity of combat has generated a need for weapons with increased accuracy and which are capable of supporting various accessories, such as flashlights, infrared and night vision scopes, laser spotters, and so forth. Consequently, a wide variety of mounts for rifles and other hand weapons have been developed which permit the mounting of lights, scopes and the like on the weapon, often along the barrel. Such mounts are generally referred to as Modular Weapon Systems, and replace the factory handguards of the host weapon systems.
These modular weapon systems generally include Picatinny or other rails or tracks, often using MIL-STD-1913 for standardization of the mounting systems, and are affixed to the barrel or stock of the rifle for mounting accessories thereon. A variety of designs have been suggested for such modular weapon systems and such rails, as well as differing numbers of rails which can be coupled at one time to a rifle. At present, it is known to mount up to four rails about the handguard of a rifle.
Since the rails are generally mounted on the handguard (or handguard replacement) of the rifle, accessories mounted thereon must be zeroed often, since the alignment of the accessory relative to the barrel changes slightly during firing of the weapon or if the weapon receives a shock (i.e., falls).
Recently floating rails have been suggested. These include rails attached to a weapon in such a way as not to contact the barrel. These generally are attached at the rear of the rifle only, in order to attempt to provide more stability over times However, these rails, also, suffer from alignment problems due to the shock created by the gases during firing. In addition, most of these rails can be mounted only by an armorer, by taking apart the barrel and sight and reassembling the weapon with the floating rails.
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a very stable mount for two or more rails, and it would be very desirable to have such a mount which permits the mounting of six rails on a single weapon and which can be assembled easily by the user of the firearm.